


A Lifetime Of Devotion

by Welsh_Woman



Series: If You Feel Like Giving Me... [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Claudia Stilinski, Alive Hales, Alternate Universe - Grew Up Together, Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, M/M, Oblivious Derek, Sheriff Stilinski's Name is John, Slow Build, The Stilinski's Don't Know About Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-14 19:36:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11214858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welsh_Woman/pseuds/Welsh_Woman
Summary: Derek Hale and Stiles Stilinski have a chance meeting as children in a grocery store.They spend the next few years tackling school, keeping secrets, growing up, and falling in love...(Inspired by the talentedmophasia's artwork, click the link and give them some love!)





	1. Chapter 1

Derek Hale was only four years old when he first met Stiles- “ _Trust me_ , that’s a lot easier than my real name.” -Stilinski.

Derek had been dutifully walking behind his mother as she made her way through the grocery store, occasionally grabbing the item she pointed out for him, happy that he was now old enough to go with and that Laura had decided that she had ‘better things to do’ instead of coming with as well.

(The fact that she has yet to tell him what those ‘better things’ are _to this day_ has him thinking that she just was throwing a fit that he got to tag along.)

As it was, they had been in the store for a decent amount of time when Derek’s mother had noticed someone at the other end of the aisle.

“Claudia? Claudia Stilinski? Is that you?”

Derek had looked up from where he was trying to decide if he wanted Coco Puffs or Captain Crunch this week-

(He _loves_ Coco Puffs, even to this day, but Laura always stole his back then and wasn’t really fond of Captain Crunch, but Derek didn’t really like it either, so it was something to think about.)

-to see a pretty lady with long brown hair pushing a stroller towards his mother, a wide smile on her face as she got closer.

“Talia Hale! So nice to see you! I hear you just got back into town from some important get together upstate, something about a conference?”

Derek had listened for a little while, waving when his mom introduced him to Mrs. Stil-lins-key, but his attention had been quickly diverted to the stroller when they started talking about ‘bars’ and ‘degrees’, things that the grownups are always saying that they’ll ‘tell him about when he’s older’.

He was already nearly five! Wasn’t that old enough?!?

A gurgle had drawn him out of his thoughts, and Derek had grinned at the baby in the stroller, fingers in their mouth but a grin still directed Derek’s way anyway, something that made Derek grin even wider as he had waved and said softly, “Hi, baby.”

That had earned him another gurgle and the baby had lurched a little in their seat, almost as if they were trying to get out, only to not realize that there were belts keeping them in place. Their face had started to scrunch up as each try ends with the same result and it made Derek’s stomach pinch, because he hadn’t wanted the baby to be unhappy, so he had tugged on his mother’s hand to try to get her attention.

“Mom?”

“Just a second, sweetie, I’m almost finished.” His mother had given him a quick smile and swept a hand through his hair before going back to speaking to Mrs. Stilinski, leaving Derek uncertain on what he should do...

At least, until the baby had started to make these little whimpering noises and then Derek had muttered, “Shhh, shhh. It’s okay, it’s okay...” as he started reaching forward to unlock the belts holding the baby in place.

Now, normally, Derek knew that he should _never_ mess with someone else’s baby, that he should never, _ever_ do anything that might make people mad at him, but his Momma _also_ told him that Hales are supposed to protect and take care of the people of Beacon Hills. Mrs. Stilinski and his Momma were still talking about grownup things and Derek had taken care of Cora before, he was pretty confident that he could handle a baby.

He was, after all, nearly five years old **_and_ ** he could go to the grocery store with his Momma. He was practically a grownup himself!

The baby had quieted almost immediately as soon as Derek had started working on the belts, almost as if they knew what Derek was doing-Stiles always takes this moment to claim that he had because he was a genius even at two if anyone makes the mistake of telling this story around him-and had started to make these little bubbling noises that sort of sounded like encouragement as Derek had fought to keep his claws in.

Momma had always said to be gentle whenever they interacted with regular humans, _especially_ _so_ with babies, and the _last_ thing Derek had wanted to do was hurt the little guy(girl?)-Stiles _also_ teases him for not being able to tell, despite Derek’s argument that he was _four_ at the time-because he had a hard time unbuckling a few belts.

It had taken a few tries, but Derek had finally got the belts undone, only to suddenly be tasked with an armful of happy baby when the kid lurched forward, nearly sending Derek sprawling to the linoleum under his feet.

The baby had burbled happily at Derek as he had arranged them both into a seating position, little hands patting at Derek’s cheeks and tugging lightly at his hair, which had made Derek giggle as he kept playfully ducking away.

“Not gonna get me!”

That had earned him another shriek of laughter as the baby redoubled their efforts and it had apparently drawn both of their mother's’ attention as well.

“Świętosław!” The shout made both of them jump, the baby’s eyes widening as Derek had instinctively curled his body around the smaller one in front of him. “Oh my god, did he fall out?!? Is he hurt?!? I know I belted him in-”

“He didn't fall! I took him out!”

“Derek!” Now his Momma was angry, which had the baby making the whimpering noises again and made Derek curl up even more. “You know you're not supposed to-”

“He was starting to cry and wanted out! I was just trying to help...”

Mrs. Stilinski seemed to take a deep breath and gently extract her son from Derek’s grip, with only a few whimpers from the little kid, and had given Derek a smile that he didn't need werewolf senses to tell wasn't sincere.

“I'm sorry for scaring you, sweetie, but hearing Świętosław yell like that scared _me_ ; I thought he had fallen and really hurt himself!” she had snuggled Stiles closer at that, and Derek had immediately felt bad for taking him out of the chair.

“M’sorry, he just sounded upset and I _tried_ to tell my Momma that…”

“I know, bear,” it's his Momma that spoke that time and Derek had leaned back against her much like Stiles was pressed against Mrs. Stilinski. “I should have listened and that’s my fault, so I’m not mad at you, but I still think you need to apologize to Claudia and promise not to take babies out of their strollers anymore. No matter _how_ upset they get, you get their Momma’s permission _first_ , okay?”

“Okay,” Derek had peeked at Mrs. Stilinski and saw that she didn’t seem as angry as before, so it was a lot easier for him to turn around and say, “I’m sorry for taking your baby out, I didn’t mean to make you upset, he just was going to cry and I didn’t want him to cry…”

Mrs. Stilinski had smiled at him, a real smile this time, and had gone to buckle Stiles back into his stroller, something he very vocally was against. “Thank you, sweetie. I understand that you were just trying to help, but next time, wait until me or your Momma say it’s okay, alright? Świętosław is still just a baby and could get hurt _very_ easily…”

Derek still wouldn’t be able to tell what kind of noise that he made at thought of accidentally hurting Stiles, but whatever it was, it made Stiles lean forward in his seat with his hands out and babble, “Sh, sh, sh, it otay!”

It was probably an attempt to mimic what Derek had done earlier, but both mothers had thought it was the cutest thing they had ever seen and spent the next few minutes cooing over Stiles and saying what a sweet boy he was.

(Derek likes to turn the tables on Stiles at this point in the story and tease him that this was the last time that anyone ever called _Stiles_ sweet unironically.)

Their mothers spent a few more minutes catching up and making plans to meet up later that week, even going as far as to check out together, Derek making funny faces at Stiles to keep him giggling throughout the entire process.

This, of course, caused another round of cooing from their parents.

At the end of the transaction and when they finally got all the groceries into the car, Derek’s mother had scooped him up, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and said, “Say goodbye to the Stilinskis, Derek.”

“Bye, Stil-lin-keys!”

Mrs. Stilinski also had picked up Stiles at this point and they both waved at his and his mother’s retreating back as they chorused, “Bye, Hales!” with Stiles farewell sounding more like, “By ‘Ales!” which had made Derek giggle.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

 

* * *

 

Funnily enough, it’s _Laura_ that gives Stiles the moniker he goes by instead of his real name:

It was during one of the playdates that their mothers had set up, something that both Derek and Stiles had taken to like fish take to water; granted there had been a few fights in those early days, a rather unfortunate event involving a Batman action figure and Derek’s nose that they swore never to speak of again, but they got along rather well for the most part.

Derek is six at this point and Stiles is about to turn five, both of chattering excitedly about the fact that they were going to start kindergarten in the fall… Stiles especially so because Derek was going to be in _the same class_ as him and _his mother_ was going to be _his teacher_.

They’re practicing writing down their names when Laura barrels through the door, Derek’s father at her heels, making a beeline for the pair of them as soon as she spots them.

“Hey, nerds! What are you doing?”

Laura had started thinking she was even cooler than usual because she’s heading to middle school next year, so she was walking around like she was better than them and ‘nerds’ was just the first of many new ‘nicknames’ she had given them.

(It was also the only one that stuck around to this day.)

“We’re writing out our names, so we’re busy.” Derek had grumbled, as annoyed back then as he is now by the various ‘nicknames’ his sister called them. “Go away, Laura.”

“No way! Let me see how good you’ve gotten!” Her tone had said that she was looking for anything _but_ improvement and was instead looking for something _else_ to tease him for, much like she had when Derek had messed up his ‘D’ that morning and had spent the better part of the time waiting for Stiles worried that his friend would think Derek was as stupid as Laura had made him feel…

“DAD!” Derek had yelled out, tucking his paper underneath him as Laura had reached for it, while Stiles makes a disgruntled noise next to them at being bumped, “MAKE LAURA GO AWAY!”

“LAURA! LEAVE YOUR BROTHER ALONE!”

“Tattletale,” Laura had hissed, but thankfully had moved away from where she was squishing him against the kitchen table. “I JUST WANTED TO SEE HOW GOOD HE HAD GOTTEN SINCE THIS MORNING!”

“I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU WERE DOING, LEAVE YOUR BROTHER ALONE AND HELP ME PUT THE GREOCRIES AWAY!”

Laura and Derek had huffed at their father’s yelling, both knowing he was only doing it for Stiles’ benefit since they both could hear him perfectly even if he whispered, and had made her way into the kitchen…

…unfortunately, she had also noticed that Stiles had left his paper completely unguarded as he had dutifully filled it all the way to the lines at the bottom.

“ _HEY_!”

Derek’s head had snapped up at his best friend’s voice and he was just about to call for their father again, but Laura’s words had cut him off, her scrunched up face only making the whole thing that much worse.

“What is _this_? I thought you were supposed to practicing your names!”

“It _is_ my name!” Stiles’ face had turned red at that and Derek had snatched the paper away from his sister, glaring at her and hoping she would just stop talking and go away.

No such luck.

“It looks like a bunch of gibberish to me! I bet it’s not a real name, I bet you’re only _pretending_ to write your name!”

“It’s a _Polish_ name!” His face is getting redder and redder, which makes Derek feel like screaming at Laura until he makes her leave... “And my mom said it was _special_!”

“In _what_ way is ‘Stiles-is-slaw’ _special?_ ”

“It’s _not_ ‘Stiles-is-slaw’! You’re saying it _wrong_!”

“No, I’m not! That’s the way you wrote it!”

“Yes, you are _so_ saying it wrong!” Derek had interjected, his own face going red at the feeling of embarrassment and fear that Laura’s attitude was going to mess up his friendship.

“ _No_ , I’m _not_!”

“ _Yes_ , you _are_!”

“DAD! Tell Derek that I’m not saying his friend’s weird name wrong, and that _he’s_ the one that _spelt_ his name wrong!”

Bruce Hale had exited the kitchen with a sigh that could only be described as long-suffering and/or annoyed; looking back, Derek could feel sorry for all the trouble the three of them put his father through, but at the time he was just hoping that his Dad would tell Laura off and get her to leave them alone.

“Laura, I just told you to leave your brother and his friend alone!”

“But he’s writing his name wrong, and he won’t listen to me!”

“It’s not wrong!”

“Is so!”

“ _IS NOT_!”

“ ** _CHILDREN_**!” All three of them jump, Derek and Laura more so because they know that tone of voice and it means that their Dad is completely _done_ with the argument. “That is _enough_! Laura, I’m pretty sure that Derek’s friend knows how to write his own name, and just because it’s different to your own does _not_ mean that you get to make fun of him for it! You will go to your room and think about how it feels _to be made fun of for something that’s different from other people_.”

The emphasis that Bruce had put on the end of his sentence had shut Laura up like nothing else had and she had quietly accepted her punishment, her head slightly hanging as she left the dining room.

Bruce had sighed and made his way back into the kitchen, but Derek had barely noticed his father leaving, because he was too focused on the way his best friend was looking at the paper bearing his name.

“Are you okay?”

“…do you think that she’s right?”

“Laura is a jerk and I don’t like her.”

That had earned him a chuckle before the mood became serious again. “I mean, do you think that she’s right about my name? That other people would make fun of me because of it?”

Derek’s hesitation had spoken for him and he could only watch as the paper is torn in two before, “It _is_ a special name, _my momma_ said so…” jolted him into action.

“It’s not bad! Just different and people can be mean about things that are different…” Derek had remembered the talk his Mom and Dad had given him, about how he should be very careful not to let people know about being a werewolf because it could put all of them into danger, so much so that he wasn’t even allowed to tell his best friend about it!

A soft sigh had been his only answer and Derek had felt even worse about not being able to help his friend before he looked at the ripped paper and an idea struck his brain.

“What about a nickname?”

“A nickname?”

“Yeah! That way, no one will make fun of you for having a different name! It’s _perfect_!”

There had been a scrunched nose at Derek’s enthusiasm, but he hadn’t let that deter him as he pointed at the crumpled-up paper, “Laura _was_ wrong, anyway; it doesn’t look like ‘Stiles-is-slaw’, it looks like ‘Stiles-is- _law_ ’, like everybody has to listen to you.”

“Yeah! And my Daddy _is_ a police officer! It _is_ perfect!”

“Stiles?”

“Yes!”

Beaming over at Derek, the newly dubbed ‘Stiles’ had picked out a fresh sheet of paper and began to write again in earnest, something that had Derek feeling like he was on top of the world as he went back to his own paper.

His Dad’s soft _*That was very nice, Derek.*_ was just the icing on top of the cake.


	2. Chapter 2

Funnily enough, it is not _Stiles_ that gets teased on that first day of kindergarten, but _Derek_ , and it’s for the _shape of his teeth_ of all things.

Needless to say, Stiles takes offense to his best friend being picked on, and that day ends with Derek’s tormentor missing a tooth, Stiles grounded for a week and a long talk with his mother that Derek was pretty sure she spent half of trying not to sweep Stiles up in a hug for defending Derek, despite the fact that she never condoned fighting to solve their problems.

That had also been the first time that their parents had ever tried to separate them as a punishment, and that had lasted only a day and a half, with Derek feeling listless and sad the entire time, while Stiles had refused to do anything until he had seen Derek for at least an hour.

(Derek had always thought it was funny how Stiles was always trying to bend the rules, even back then, despite it almost never working in his favor.)

Their relationship could very well be described as ‘mutual bad ideas and then saving the other from those same bad ideas’, something that had carried them all through primary school-where Stiles was usually the one getting into mischief and Derek was the one either saving him or sharing the blame-all the way to middle school.

It was in middle school that things changed a bit and Derek had to deal with the first problem with his furrier side:

For middle school is the first time that Derek and Stiles are placed in separate classrooms and it is also when Stiles meets ‘the super beautiful and super smart’ Lydia Martin.

Now, it’s not that Derek didn’t want Stiles to have other friends, given that Derek had made a few on _his_ first day at middle school, or that he was jealous of Lydia, it was that Stiles would. Not. Stop. Talking. About. Her.

“I do not!” Stiles had argued when Derek had brought it up, red dusting his cheeks even as he glared at Derek. “Besides, you talk about Boyd and Erica all the time too!”

“Not as much as you talk about Lydia!”

“You do too!”

“D’too!”

Startled, Derek had looked down to see that their argument had gathered the attention of Micheal, his two-year-old brother, who was grinning up at them and obviously waiting for someone to comment on his mastery of the English language.

“See!” Stiles had said, picking Micheal up and wobbling into the living room where Cora and Laura were watching a movie, “Micheal agrees with me!”

“Micheal agrees with what now?” Laura had asked, perking up like a shark smelling blood, Cora rolling her eyes at the lot of them beside her.

“That I don’t talk about Lydia as much as Derek talks about Boyd and Erica.”

“That is true,” Laura agrees, which makes Derek look at her in shock, at least until she follows that up with, “You talk about Lydia _a lot_ more.”

Even Cora snorts at that, Micheal chirping with ‘It too!”, which just makes everyone laugh even more… except Stiles, who is too busy looking at Derek like he just betrayed him.

Derek just shrugs his shoulders and states, “I told you so.”

Huffing, Stiles deposits Micheal on the couch next to Cora, watching as he immediately starts crawling into her lap before spinning on his heel and stating, “Well, if you guys are gonna tease me, then I’m just going to home then!”

“No, Stiles, wait!” Derek darts after his best friend and practically tackles him to keep him from leaving. “I’m sorry, I won’t make fun of you anymore, please don’t leave!”

“You were making fun of me! That’s mean!”

“I’m sorry! I won’t do it again!”

“Derek…?” Laura is moving from the living room and moving over to where he and Stiles are grappling in the hallway, “What’s going on?”

“I didn’t mean to upset him! I was just teasing!”

“Derek!” Laura’s voice took on a tone that Derek had never heard from her before, which had him looking at her in surprise. This, in turn, made the note of steel that she had taken on grow stronger as she snapped, “Let go of Stiles now!”

No sooner had he released Stiles then Laura was grabbing him and pulling him out of the living room and up the stairs, Stiles confused, “Derek?” following them and making Derek want to fight Laura’s grip, just so that he could go back and console him.

Laura, perhaps sensing his intentions, tightened her grip on his arm and muttered, “Come on, Der, we need to talk to Mom.”

Derek barely hears her, because he’s straining to hear what Cora says to Stiles’ question of what’s going on; he just catches her say that she never knows what’s going on with her siblings before Laura is pulling them into their mother’s study and closing the door behind them, cutting off any sound coming from or getting into the room.

“Laura? Derek? What-?”

“Derek was slipping with Stiles in the house.”

Talia had immediately abandoned her work and made her way around to where Derek is kneeling, wrapping her arms around him and muttering, “Der? What’s wrong, my little bear? You normally have such good control…”

“Stiles keeps talking about a girl in his class and even though I have friends, he keeps forgetting about everything _but_ her whenever they meet! _I’m_ his best friend and he barely even thinks about me anymore!”

“Oh, bear…” His mother had pulled him even closer at that, nodding at Laura over Derek’s head. “Go back into the rest of the kids and make sure they aren’t burning the house down, I’ll take care of Derek.”

Derek hadn’t seen if Laura had nodded back, but she had left after that, so he just snuggled up against his mother and tried not to think about Stiles using the fact that he was up here to leave like he wanted to.

“Come on, Der, just breathe and concentrate… Remember the chant we do to help us stay in control? Alpha… beta… omega… Say it with me, honey: alpha… beta… omega…”

It had taken a few minutes, but Derek had finally pulled himself together, not even realizing that that his claws had shown up until he had moved away from his mother and saw the small rends in his mother’s shirt.

“Sorry.”

“It’s alright, my little bear, I can fix a shirt. I’m not sure if I could fix your friendship if you suddenly flashed beta eyes at Stiles, or showed him the claws that come with them…”

Derek had curled up into a tighter ball at that, horrified that he had almost lost his friend just because he couldn’t share… which was _weird_ , because he was the one that usually was the first to offer up a toy or game to other people.

Yet, he couldn’t do the same with Stiles…

“Honey, if you can’t control yourself around Stiles-”

“ ** _No_**! I _can_ control myself! I’m sorry! I promise I won’t do it again! _Please_!”

“Shhh, shh, it’s alright, Derek, we’ll be more careful, it’ll be okay…”

Wrapped back up in his mother’s embrace, Derek had fought to keep his beta shift under control, to show his mother that they could keep Stiles around and that they didn’t need to take away his best friend, and after a few moments he pulled away to throw out his arms in a ‘ta-da!’ kind of gesture.

“See? I’m fine!” He had even thrown in a little twirl to drive the point home. “I _can_ control myself!”

It wasn’t until Derek was a few years older that he realized the look that his mother had given him before letting head back downstairs wasn’t pride, but a sort of resigned sadness.

 

* * *

 

Stiles, unfortunately, was not still in the house when Derek had made his way back into the living room, and Derek did not see him again-aside from a quick glance when they were going to school-until three days later.

(It went without saying that this did _nothing_ to soothe Derek’s fear that Stiles saw something that may have frightened him off…)

So, when there’s a knock at the Hale House’s door, Derek races Laura to be the one to open it and is terrified-happy that Stiles and his father are standing on the other side.

“Derek. Laura.” John Stilinski nods at each of them before nudging Stiles ahead of him into the house. “I need to speak to your mother for a moment, is she in her office?”

“Yeah, she said that she’d be in there for most of the day.” Laura’s gaze keeps darting between John, Stiles, and her brother, almost as if she can’t decide which thing she wants to find out about first… Finally, she settles on, “Do you remember where it is?”

While Stiles and his mother had been a major fixture ever since Claudia had run into Talia at the grocery store, John had only made a few visits to the Hale House and most of them had been either to pick Stiles up or speak to their mother about a case that she was working on. Laura’s question was honest, as well as a way to eavesdrop on the conversation without drawing suspicion.

John had an expression on his face like he knew this, but still smiled and said, “That would be nice of you, thank you, Laura.”

Laura leads John up the stairs and leaves Derek and Stiles standing in the entryway, both of them staring at the floor and doing everything they can not to meet the other’s gaze.

After a few seconds of this, Derek couldn’t take the silence anymore and blurted out, “I’m sorry about teasing you, and grabbing you, and making you leave on Tuesday-”

“You didn’t make me leave,” Stiles tells the floor, his shoes scuffing a mark on the linoleum, “Laura said that it might be better if I went home, so we called my Dad and he picked me up.”

“Oh…”

There is more silence before Stiles coughs and says, “My Dad also said that I should apologize too, because he said that you probably were upset because you thought I was replacing you, since I talked about Lydia so much…”

“I did.” Derek admits, looking up to see that Stiles was finally looking back. “I thought that, since you had so much to talk about and that you were always bringing her up, that she was more interesting than me and you wanted her as your best friend instead.”

Stiles starts shaking his head almost as soon as Derek starts talking, his face a mixture of earnest and remorseful. “No way! I mean, I _really_ like Lydia and would be thrilled if she liked me too, but you are my _very best_ friend and there is no way I would _ever_ replace you!”

“Really?”

“ ** _Yes_**!”

Derek feels something warm and light filling his body at that, making him grin at Stiles, who beams back so hard that Derek’s own cheeks ache in sympathy.

“Derek? Stiles?” Cora’s voice breaks them out of the moment and they turn to see her staring at them in confusion, Micheal hanging onto her right arm. “What are you doing, standing in the entryway?”

“’Tiles!”

“Nothing,” Derek shares a grin with Stiles, happy that he still has his best friend and that he hadn’t done anything to make him go away. “Just talking.”

“Whatever,” is Cora’s reply, even as Micheal detaches himself to wobble over to Stiles, who hugs him as soon as he gets close. “You guys are weird.”

“I think you mean awesome!” Stiles counters, trying to pick Micheal up and more or less just having Derek’s brother hang from his arms. “You’re just jealous you’re not as cool as us!”

Cora gives her patented eyeroll as she turns on her heel with a huffed, “You wish!” thrown over her shoulder.

Giggling at her dramatic exit, Stiles turns to grin at Derek and ask, “You want to play some Mario Kart while we wait for my Dad to get done?”

“’Aro Kar!”

“You could stay for dinner too?” Derek has been missing his friend and wasn’t afraid to admit it, so any more time he could squeeze out of this visit, he was going to grab.

Stiles, sadly, shakes his head, explaining, “Mom already has a special dinner planned, so as soon as my Dad is done talking with your mom, we’re going to be going straight home.”

“Maybe tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I’ll ask!”

“Yea!”

Buoyed by the promise for a future visit, Derek leads the way into the living room and starts up the N64 while Stiles situates Micheal on the couch and explains to him his very important role of cheering crowd, something that Micheal takes great joy in.

“Yea!”

“Now, you’re supposed to cheer when one of us win, okay?”

“Yea!” This one is accompanied by his arms being thrown into the air, Micheal’s fist only missing Stiles’ face by mere inches.

“Seems like you got it!”

“Yea!”

Laughing, Stiles plops down next to Derek in front of the couch and picks up the second controller, his regular boast of, “I’m gonna kick your butt!” making Derek giggle as well.

They manage to get a few games in, Micheal taking his role as the cheering crowd _very_ seriously, screaming in joy every time either one of them so much as hit a speed booster, and even grabbing at Derek’s hair at one point to give Stiles a bit of a head start.

“Not fair! I have a two-year-old on my head!”

“Yea!”

By the time John Stilinski made his way back down to the living room, Derek’s mother trailing behind him and the pair of them still conversing softly, the three of them were splayed together in a pile with Micheal in Derek’s lap.

“Stiles!” Derek whines, holding his controller in the air, desperately trying to keep it out of the reach of Micheal’s grasping hands, “You said you would hold him this time!”

“No, I said I would hold him _next_ time!”

“You said that _last_ time!”

“Stiles,” John calls out, cutting off what would probably turn into another argument, “It’s time to go now, you need to say goodbye.”

“Awwwwwwww…” John can only chuckle at the chorus that comes from all three of them.

Setting down his controller, which Micheal immediately swipes and starts slapping at, Stiles gives both Derek and his brother a hug before darting over to his father and demanding, “Dad! Derek invited me over for dinner tomorrow since we’re having a special dinner tonight! Can I go? Please, please, please?!?”

John laughs and starts steering Stiles toward the door, mentioning that Talia had invited all of them to dinner as well, so that was a nice coincidence before turning and waving goodbye to everyone in the living room.

Derek’s mother waits until the front door closes behind the Stilinskis before turning to Derek and saying, “I’m glad that everything was worked out between you two.”

Derek grins back at his mother, letting Micheal ‘play’ the game with him for a while. “I am too!”


	3. Chapter 3

Things settled back into their regular retinue after that, with the only difference being Derek helping Stiles every now and again with his plans to get Lydia Martin to notice him, despite not making any notion of even realizing that Stiles was _alive_ all through middle school and the beginning of high school.

It’s the summer between Junior and Senior Year that Derek’s world decides to take another shift that threatens to topple his balancing act: Talia decides that it’s time for Derek to see the world outside of Beacon Hills and go to a camp designed _specifically_ for werewolves.

Meaning, Stiles can’t go with him, no matter how much he begs, demands, or bargains.

Derek is sitting in his bedroom, contemplating whether he should pack his DS into his bag or not, when the whirlwind that is his best friend comes pounding into his room with a slam that nearly sends the doorknob through the drywall behind his door.

“You’re leaving for some sort of high rise camp in a few hours and _you didn’t tell me_???”

Derek ducks his head, guilt flooding his body at the hurt look on Stiles’ face, and wishing-not for the first time-that he had told Stiles that he was a werewolf at some point and that this so-called ‘camp’ was just a retreat that helped ‘wolves with their control.

Maybe then he wouldn’t have to lie to his best friend for most of his life, leading him to where they are now…

“I didn’t say anything because I was trying to find out a way to keep from going,” Derek keeps his face turned away from Stiles, having learned a long time ago that Stiles had learned all his tells and always knew whenever he was lying.

It made that whole ‘I’m a werewolf’ secret all that much harder to keep…

“So, what, you were going to wait until you were actually _at_ camp to tell me?” Stiles takes Derek’s vacated spot on his bed, splaying his body over the entirety with a disgruntled huff.

“No, I was going to send you a text in a minute, you just got here before I could send it.” Derek gives one of Stiles’ feet a swat-which earns him an over the top yelp from Stiles-as he makes his way to his desk chair, flopping down in it much like Stiles had done to his bed.

“You know, if you had told me earlier, I could’ve got an after-school job, or something, since your mom said that this place is kinda high profile.”

Derek winces at the reminder that his family is slightly better off than the Stilinskis and his mother picked this particular ‘werewolf camp’ specifically for that reason, in a subtler attempt to make it so that Stiles can’t follow him there.

“I don’t think you having a job would help…”

There’s a few minutes of silence before Stiles says, “This is the first summer that we haven’t spent together, man. I don’t like it.”

“I don’t like it, either.” But he _needed_ to do this, no matter how much he wished he didn’t have to, because his control around Stiles was getting worse and worse…

Take, for example, the fact that Stiles was flopping around like a landed fish in his bed; it was taking all of Derek’s self-control not to join Stiles in mussing up the sheets in a way that left both of their scents in the mattress for days…

It was _weird,_ these sudden urges he had around his best friend, something that Laura had spent nearly an hour laughing at when he had been dumb enough to ask for her advice.

“Alright, I get it. You don’t have to bite my head off, dude…”

Derek sighs; in his attempt to keep from whatever was going on with him concerning his best friend, his words had come out sharper than he meant and now Stiles thought he was mad at him! He was just opening his mouth to apologize when Stiles flipped over to face him and gave him a grin that really didn’t look all that genuine.

“It just sucks, man. Who’s going to help me figure out new and amazing ways to show Lydia Martin how awesome I am?”

Biting back a literal growl, Derek is reminded of another reason why this little ‘camping’ idea is actually a good thing; every time that Stiles mentions the name ‘Lydia Martin’-always the full name, like she’s some kind of rock goddess or something-Derek is filled with an almost overwhelming urge to find the girl, growl her into submission and make her give up whatever claim she had on Stiles’ heart.

He knew it didn’t work that way-and that his distaste of the girl hadn’t improved since middle school-that she had no more power over who Stiles fell in love with than he did, but the more primal part of him saw her as a threat and even thought about giving her _literal_ heart to Stiles since he wanted it so much…

 _That_ , most of all, was the reason he had eventually agreed to this; he wasn’t a killer, or a monster, and he needed to make sure he never became one just because his baser urges were a little more… animalistic.

Blinking back to the present, Derek realizes that Stiles is still staring at him, waiting for an answer. Forcing a grin of his own on his face, Derek quips, “I’m sure that you’ll think of something; after all, half the shit we got into trouble for was _your_ idea.”

“Hey! Those were _genius_ ideas and you know it! It’s not _my_ fault that half the things we needed were out of the range budget of a ten-year-old and we had to make due!”

Derek huffs out a laugh and Stiles’ pose becomes more relaxed as they chat about everything and nothing in the few remaining hours Derek has left, before his mother pokes her head in his room after a light tap on his door.

“Derek, it’s about time for us to head out. Stiles, I told your mother that you were going to be home in about an hour and that was thirty minutes ago, so you better head out as well, dear.”

Stiles gets off his bed with the same huff he gave getting into it, before turning to Derek’s mother with slightly suspicious glare. “How did you know I was even here? I used my key to get in and didn’t see anyone on the way up here…”

His mother snorts, like the question is ridiculous even without werewolf senses, and Derek finds himself chuckling as well when she says, “As if the two of you having spent most of your lives in each other’s pockets since the moment you met! I knew, almost as soon as Claudia asked, that if you weren’t at home that you’d be up here with my son.”

Stiles flushes at the words, splotches of color rising in his cheeks as he sends his glare to where Derek is still sitting, before he mutters, “I’m not over here all the time…”

“No, just most of it. Enough so that you have your own key.”

While Stiles stammers out an excuse for that as well, Derek makes his way over to his duffel and heaves it off the floor, a little disappointed that Stiles doesn’t understand just _how much_ it means that he has _his own key_ to the house…

Wolves are _very_ territorial, werewolves _even more_ so-what with Hunters and rival packs that think that they can take over a territory by killing the previous pack that claimed it-so the home that was their Den was guarded much more rigidly that any other place in the territory.

The fact that Stiles-a _human_ -had a key, a key given to him by none other than _Talia herself_ , spoke not only of _his_ relationship with _them_ , but the amount of trust _they_ placed in _him_ as well…

Yet another thing that Derek couldn’t tell him and something that made the wolf side of him whine whenever he thought about it.

“Derek?”

He looks up to see both Stiles and his mother staring at him in concern, making him realize that he had been staring at his bedroom floor for the past couple of minutes and probably missed a question one of them asked him.

“I’m fine, just thinking.”

Stiles accepts the answer and starts to make his way out of Derek’s room and down the stairs, but his mother looks at him for a moment, probably telling by the skip his heart made that he wasn’t telling the entire truth.

It’s been an ongoing argument between the two of them, on whether they should tell Stiles the truth about their dual nature or not, with Derek arguing on Stiles’ trustworthiness and loyalty while his mother constantly bringing up that she isn’t doubting his qualities, she’s more afraid of who he’ll ‘accidentally’ end up telling.

Derek’s counter argument that Stiles knew how to keep a secret was usually broken down under all the times that Stiles had been asked to keep parties or presents under wraps, only to blurt it out the next time he saw the person.

Rebuffing that there was a difference between asking someone to not spoil a surprise party and keeping something that could get the lot of them killed never seemed to sway his mother’s thinking, no matter how many times he had tried throughout the years.

Even now, Derek can see his mother getting ready to argue her point once more, and he’s just so tired of all the secrets he’s keeping, of who he really is and how the whole Stilinski family are part of their Pack, that he doesn’t even wait for her to start.

“Are you _ever_ going to tell him? Or am I going to have to lie to my best friend until he gets tired of it and leaves? Or until he finds out himself and is so hurt that we never trusted him that I lose him _anyway_?”

Not waiting for her reply, Derek shifts his duffel on his shoulder and makes his way down the stairs, where he can hear Stiles calling for him to hurry up before he starts growing mold.

His best friend, everybody…

 

* * *

 

The retreat is both helpful and… not.

Granted, a few of the Bitten ‘wolves have come with him, so there’s people he can talk to and run with, the feeling that he always gets he’s away from his pack lessened by that.

He also sees what it’s like outside of Beacon Hills territory line and how other ‘wolves honor the full moon, so that part is fun as well, as much as he fights wanting to admit that his mother was right about that.

Yet, the fact that this is the first summer that Derek has ever spent without even _seeing_ Stiles is slowly chipping away at every ounce of control that Derek manages to find.

He knew, within the first few nights of his ‘camp’, that Stiles had managed to sneak his way into being Derek’s Anchor, but it was a little hard to get control from thinking about the very person that made him feel so out of control…

“Just don’t think about him naked,” had been Erica’s oh-so-helpful advice when he had gone to her with his problem, something he deeply regrets almost as soon as she had opened her mouth. “Or, you know, do and then ravage his skinny ass so your wolf stops making you coocoo for Coco Puffs because it has a serious case of blue balls.”

“Not. Helping.” Derek growls out, clenching his fists and hoping the smell of blood would calm him down from the images that have popped into his head of what Stiles had looked like spread across his bed, but now he was there with him and he had-

Shaking his head in a vain attempt to get the images to stop, confused as to why he was thinking of Stiles like that in the first place, he gives Erica the best glare he can, under the circumstances.

She laughs at him, the sounds of laughter echoing around the clearing in a way that says that Boyd and Isaac-a Beta from the territory that borders the Hale land-can hear the entire thing.

“And my wolf isn’t some separate part of me,” Derek hopes that the conversation will help his mind stop playing images of the summer before, when the pack had convinced the Stilinskis to take a few days off and go to the beach with them… “I am the wolf and the wolf is me, we aren’t separate entities fighting for the same body!”

“Wow,” Erica drawls, looking completely unimpressed with everything Derek right now. “You’re still using big words and thoughts while fighting off a boner? No wonder you like Stiles so much…”

“Why I am I friends with you?”

“Because I’m awesome and don’t beat around the bush?”

“Awesome, yes. Tactless? Also yes, but I think we can work on that.”

Erica hits him for that, before her expression softens and she states quite plainly, “It’s not whether or not you want to jump Stiles, is it? It’s that you’re keeping such a large part of yourself from him.”

Derek closes his eyes and feels the Beta shift slide back into dormancy, all salacious thoughts of Stiles locked away beneath the serious turn that the conversation has taken.

“I’m pretty sure my mother plans to never tell him, to keep him in the dark forever.” He drops to the forest floor, uncaring of the dirt and debris underneath him, and fixes his gaze on the moon above him. “I know that she’s just trying to protect us all, but Stiles would never purposely give away a secret this big… I know he won’t!”

Erica flops down next to him, her blonde hair a sharp contrast to the muddy ground underneath them as she fixes Derek with the most serious expression that he’s ever seen on her face.

“You know, if it was just Boyd that was the werewolf and I had stayed human, I would understand why he didn’t tell me, especially if it was an order from his Alpha… but I also would try to figure out what the secret was, anyway, so he didn’t have to face it all by himself.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of…” Derek sighs, watching Erica out of the peripheral side of his vision as she makes herself more comfortable, eventually using his arm as a pillow. He makes a token attempt at shaking her off, but she just snuggles in tighter and he gives up soon enough.

“I’m just worried that when he does find out, whether because my mom relented or he figured out himself, is that he’ll either be disgusted by us, or pissed off that we kept it from him for so long.”

“It’s _Stiles_ , no way he’ll be disgusted! And he’ll _definitely_ be pissed about this-”

“-I changed my mind, it’s your comforting speeches that really solidify our friendship.”

Erica punches him in the side for that, before going on as if she was never interrupted, the sounds of approaching feet letting him know that Boyd and Isaac have decided to join them. “But, and I know what I’m talking about here, he’ll get over it once you explain why it had to be so hush-hush for so long.”

“I hope so…”

“I _know_ so. Trust me on this one, Derek, there’s _nothing_ you possibly could say or do that would make Stiles any less inclined to want to climb you like a tree.”

While he makes a big thing out of reacting to her words, dumping leaves into her hair which makes her shriek and counterattack by trying to rub dirt into his _face_ , part of Derek desperately wishes that he had Erica’s certainty that this all wasn’t going to come crashing down around him…


	4. Chapter 4

While he is grateful for the chance to get away from Beacon Hills and all the problems that are waiting for him, Derek can say with absolute certainty that he’s glad to be going home.

It’s not just that he’ll get to see Stiles and his family again, it’s also because Boyd and Erica have made it their mission to drive him insane with how much they’ve been joined at the hip lately, making Isaac bed down in Derek’s cabin, loudly bemoaning how he can hear what they get up to.

But mostly that he’ll see Stiles and his family.

“You mean, mostly to _just_ see Stiles again.” Erica grins at him, Boyd rolling his eyes from where he’s draped across her shoulder, making Derek wonder why he even mentioned this to her in the first place. “It’s okay to admit that you miss the guy you’re panting over, Derek. We’re your friends, we won’t judge.”

“No, you would just make fun of me forever and I’m _not_ panting over him, Erica!” Derek gives Boyd what he hopes is a very clear ‘Give me a hand here!’ kind of look, but Boyd merely raises his brow in a way that has always translated into him staying out of whatever mess the pair of them have made.

Huffing his breath out at the pair of them, Derek makes his way up to the diner outside of town, having promised Stiles that he would meet him up there as soon as he got into town.

He can’t help but feel excited to see his friend again and tries to keep from showing it too much, knowing that Erica will take what he’s feeling and run away with it.

Going by the grin she gives him, he’s not that successful…

Stepping into the diner is like slipping on a warm coat and Derek grins as soon as he sees Stiles sitting in their normal booth, taking a moment to look him over to see if anything about him had changed over the summer.

(Derek, himself, apparently grew into a ‘rocking bod’ according to Erica, which made him frown at her whenever he heard it. Yeah, Derek put on a few muscles, but nothing _that_ drastic…)

Stiles had grown a little as well, something that was a little hard to tell with him sitting down, his hair was longer and his body seemed to have gained a few more layers since Derek left, so it was also hard to tell if he gained any muscle either.

It’s at that moment that Stiles seems to notice him and Derek is just about to lift a hand in greeting when Stiles’ eyes get really wide and he spins in his seat, giving Derek his back.

A cold, sharp feeling settles just underneath Derek’s breastbone even as his friends usher him forward and they all fall into the booth across from Stiles, something he doesn’t even raise his gaze from the table to comment on.

Swallowing past the lump in his throat, Derek greets his friend. “Hey, Stiles.”

Stiles mumbles something that might be a reply, his fingers picking at the surface of the table and, desperate to find out what caused this sudden change of character in his best friend, Derek tries to keep the conversation going.

“I know you know Erica and Boyd, but this is Isaac Lahey.” Isaac give a bored sort of wave from where he’s sitting as Derek points him out. “He lives a little way out of town, just outside of the Preserve.”

“Are you going spend the entire meal sitting there like a bump on a log?” Isaac drawls, looking ready to leave already. “Or are you going to introduce us to _your_ friends?”

His comment makes Derek startle, having been so focused on Stiles that he hadn’t even realized that there were other people sitting there. Pulling his attention away from Stiles, who still hasn’t looked at him, Derek takes a look around the table.

There’s an olive-skinned boy with a slightly uneven jaw sitting to Stiles’ right, whose looking at Derek with an air of suspicion and has his arm around a girl that seems to be of Asian descent-Derek doesn’t want to assume, so he’s going to hold off on guessing-and she’s looking at him with open interest.

On Stiles’ left is a blond boy with cheekbones that-as Erica would say-you could cut glass on and he, like Isaac, is looking like the entire proceedings are beneath him.

Finally, tucked under his arm, strawberry blonde hair curled to perfection and probably twice as smart as the entire table combined, is Lydia Martin.

Derek has to blink at that, because the last he knew, Lydia barely acknowledged Stiles’ existence and now she’s willingly sitting with him? What all happened while he was gone?!?

“Lydia.”

Her gaze focuses on him for a second, just long enough for Derek to feel like he’s being x-rayed and peeled apart, before she turns her eyes elsewhere.

“Derek.”

Erica looks like she’s torn between looking delighted by Lydia and offended on Derek’s behalf as Stiles introduces the rest of the table as Scott being the kid with crooked jaw, the girl under Scott’s arm being Kira and the blonde pretty boy being Jackson.

Everybody says hello to each other and there’s a tense moment when the waitress comes by to take everyone’s orders, before there’s silence again.

It only lasts a second before Jackson huffs out a breath and pins Derek with a stare. “So, Stilinski tells me that you were at some kind of high class camp? What was it called? I highly doubt it was _that_ good if _I_ never heard of it.”

Derek can practically feel the look that Erica shares with Boyd and he can actually see the look that Isaac gives Jackson, which makes the whole table erupt in snickers, more so when Isaac asks, “You have a rather high opinion of yourself, don’t you?”

Jackson looks like he’s about to start a fight, but Lydia just jabs him in the side and glares. “If you get me kicked out of here because you can’t keep from getting into a pissing match with a boy you just met, you can find someone else to go to Senior Prom with.”

Grumbling, Jackson settles further into the booth seat with an expression that can only be called a pout on his face.

Boyd and Erica use that lull to draw Scott and Kira into conversation, Isaac following their lead a few moments later with Lydia, the looks he keep giving her making Jackson randomly tighten his arm around her as if that will make her stop talking to the other boy.

If anything, it just seems to make her chat with Isaac _more_ …

Derek tries a few times to draw Stiles into conversation, but each time he just turns to either Lydia or Scott and inserts himself into their conversation, completely ignoring Derek altogether. It gets so bad that Derek just gives up after a while, focusing instead on the food when it arrives at their table.

It seems like he doesn’t need to worry about his secret driving the wedge between Stiles and him, Stiles has already replaced him with a whole new group of friends…

He has to stop eating at that point, unable to get anything past the lump in his throat, the other ‘wolves at the table stopping to rub a comforting hand against his back or shoulder, depending on which one they could reach.

Trying to fight past the hopeless feeling growing in his chest, Derek had lifted his head to try to engage in his own conversation, but it was at that moment that Stiles had also decided to look up as well, so Derek just saw the frown on his face before he went back to his food.

Eating doesn’t seem all that important after that…

Picking up on Derek’s mood, the other ‘wolves also start getting twitchy and cutting off people before they can start a conversation, and he would feel bad about it if he didn’t feel like he was moments away from throwing up everything he hadn’t eaten.

“Well, as fun as this all was, I think I can say that some people are ready to get going and that ‘some people’ includes me.” Lydia stands and starts nudging Stiles out of the booth, only pausing to give Isaac a folded piece of paper before she goes. “Give me a call if you want to get together again. Stiles. Everyone.”

And with a click of her heels, she’s gone.

Everybody else begins to file out after that, various people promising to call each other/make plans to meet up for movies or meals, but Derek uses this time to try and get through to Stiles one more time.

Using the rest of the group’s talking as a cover, Derek leans in and says, “There’s a new Marvel movie coming out, are we still on to see it?”

For a second, Derek thinks that Stiles is going to make a quip about it being Derek’s turn to pay for the movie and he can feel his heart lurching in hope, but then Stiles is pulling away and muttering, “Sorry, I already saw it with Scott.”

Derek gets it then, nods and pulls away, ignoring the rest of his friends calling for him as he makes his way to the Camaro; they made new friends today, they can ask one of _them_ for a ride!

Stiles was always excited for the next Marvel movie, would go to see it multiple times if he could, so him making the excuse that he had already seen it with Scott…

Exhaling sharply, Derek ignores the blurriness at the edges of his vision and makes his way home.

 

* * *

 

It only takes a week for someone to comment on his mood.

“Why don’t you just tell Stiles how you feel?!?” Laura demands with her usual level of tact, “It would be so much easier to deal with this than all this damn-”

“Because I know that if I talk to him, I’ll have to admit that leaving for last summer was the worst thing I could’ve done,” Derek grimaces at the look Laura gives him, and quickly goes on to defend himself, “Look, Stiles tells me everything, okay? He’s told me everything from the first time he had a wet dream to the Amy Adams fantasy that he first jerked off to, so if he’s going out of his way to ignore and avoid me, it’s because he doesn’t want to be my friend anymore.”

Despite having a few classes together, despite the fact that majority of their friend group have merged together and sit together at lunch, Stiles has made no motion of trying to keep the friendship they had before Derek had left; as a matter of fact, Stiles has gone out of his way to make sure that there is a person between them when they sit together and that there is always someone with them to avoid being alone with Derek.

“Okay, ignoring the unhealthy level of codependency you two have, if he’s telling you about his masturbatory habits,” Laura shudders in a way that makes her whole body twitch and Derek roll his eyes at her, “All of this is just your brain immediately jumping on the worst-case scenario, which you wouldn’t have to do if you just talked to him!!!”

“Laura, just drop it, alright? For once in your life, can you just accept that you’re wrong about this?”

Muttering something that sounds suspiciously like ‘It’s middle school all over again!’, Laura stomps out of the house and Derek hears an engine start up a few moments later.

Sinking deeper into the couch, Derek focuses on whatever crappy movie is playing on the television and tries not to think about the fact that if Stiles was here, there would be hilarious commentary and random facts about various places the scenes are shot in.

Derek is pulled from those thoughts by the ringing of his cellphone, but when he looks at the caller ID and sees that it’s Laura, he’s half tempted to just ignore the call…

…then again, she could be stuck on the side of the road somewhere and it would look suspicious if she ran back to the house, or…

Sighing heavily, Derek connects the call and groans out, “What do you want, Laura?”

“I need you to come out to the house I have over on Sixth.”

“And why should I do that?”

“Because you’re my brother and I asked you to?”

“Try again, Laura.”

“Alright, I think I know a way to cheer your morbid ass up, but it’s at my house and I left already and I don’t want to go all the way back to the Pack house, okay?”

Derek sighs heavily, but he’s already putting on his shoes and snagging the keys for the Toyota that is the designated ‘Pack car’. “I’ll be there in twenty, do you need anything else while I’m out?”

“Nope, just bring your grumpy self. Love ya, Der-bear!”

“Love you too, Lar.”

Sighing again, Derek ends the call and makes his way to Laura’s ‘private’ house, a little hesitant when he sees that most of the house is darkened.

Pulling out his phone, he tries to call Laura again, but it goes straight to voicemail. Worried even more, Derek makes his way to the house and notices that the front door is slightly ajar.

Wasting no time to think about what could possibly be happening, Derek races inside the house, zoning in on the heartbeat he can hear in one of the upstairs bedrooms…

…only to stop short inside the door when he sees Stiles sitting there instead of Laura, who looks just as surprised to see him.

Derek has only a moment to wonder what the hell is going on before the door behind him clicks and it all makes perfect sense.

Ringing Laura again, Derek growls when she picks up the phone with a chipper, “Hello, Der-bear!”

“What. Did. You. Do?” Derek is pretty sure that his fangs have dropped, a quick look over to Stiles shows that he busy talking to someone on his own phone, but Derek still turns his back to that side of the room.

“I told you that I had something to make you feel better, didn’t I? Now the two of you can sort this whole mess out and you can quit it with the Grumpy Care Bear impersonation!”

“Laura!” Derek’s snap is almost drowned out by Stiles’ “Come on, Scott!”

“Sorry, baby bro! It was a group decision and we all agreed that the two of you needed to talk to each other… well, some of us were a bit more _colorful_ than that…”

It doesn’t take long for Derek to guess who it is that she’s talking about. “Laura, I don’t want-”

“Look, Der, I know you think I’m being nosy and that I’m completely wrong about all of this, but just trust me on this, okay? I’m not just jerking your chain, I have talked to Scott and the others, they say that Stiles is just as miserable as you are. So, just… try? Please?”

The sounds of Stiles ending his own call behind him decides for Derek. “If this goes wrong…”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. You’ll rip my throat out with your teeth. Love you too, Der!”

Laura hangs up the phone before Derek can respond and there is nothing else he can do but turn around.

Stiles is looking down at the phone in his hands, twisting it from one to the other and it takes a few moments before he meets Derek’s eyes. “I take it that you were fooled into coming here, too?”

“Yeah, how did Laura get you here?”

“Actually,” Stiles rubs at his neck, a bit of a blush on his cheeks as he admits, “Scott told me that there was a D&D game being played here, which should’ve tipped me off, because I’m pretty sure that he doesn’t even know what D&D stands for!”

Derek shakes his head and sighs. “Look, Stiles, I’m sorry that you got dragged into this and I-”

“I thought you didn’t want to be my friend anymore.”

Derek blinks at the sudden subject change. “What?”

The redness in Stiles’ face grows as he continues, “I thought that Erica and Boyd had finally convinced you that you could do better while you were away at camp, what with how comfortable you were around them and how much they kept touching you, so you had only met up with me to tell me that you didn’t want to be my friend anymore.”

“And that’s why you kept ducking me whenever you saw me?”

“Yeah, I thought that if I could avoid you telling me that we weren’t friends anymore that I could pretend we still were-”

“We still _are_ , Stiles!” Derek is so relieved that Laura was finally right for once in her life that his voice comes out a little louder than normal and it makes Stiles jump, but he’s too elated to apologize. “Erica and Boyd are just… affectionate people and they show that by hugging or comforting people, that’s it! I’m pretty sure the _only_ reason that they’re glad that you weren’t around is because I spent most of camp talking about you!”

“Oh my god…” Stiles starts giggling at this, shaking his head as he seems to try to makes sense of the last couple of days. “We are so stupid! Mind you, Laura and Scott _were_ pretty sneaky with this, I thought I was going to be pulled into this room for a _very_ different reason!”

The comment, along with the little eyebrow wiggle, has Derek bursting out in laughter because it is just so _Stiles_ , and this whole thing was just a huge misunderstanding that could have been avoided if they had just _talked_ to each other.

His laughter tapers off when he realizes that Stiles is looking at him with wide eyes and a slightly gaping mouth, taking a quick look over himself before asking, “What? What is it?”

Stiles quickly shakes his head and gives Derek a quick grin. “No, it’s nothing. So, aside from spending every moment talking about me, what _did_ you do at that camp of yours?”

Derek snorts, moving to sit down on the bed in the room and motioning for Stiles to do the same. “I’m surprised you’re not talking my ear off about how you got Lydia to finally notice you!”

Stiles huffs at that, and sprawls over the bed like it’s his own. “That was pretty easy once I stopped trying to date her and saw her as her own person, which _did_ take a while because she didn’t really believe me at first…”

Derek settles in, happy to listen to Stiles describe what his summer was like on his own, and perfectly content to ignore the buzzing of both of their phones.


	5. Chapter 5

Derek is pretty sure that his life is finally looking up.

He’s got his best friend, a loving-if slightly annoying-family, and it looks like his college applications will be met with positive answers.

So, while he was perfectly happy getting into trouble with the Sheriff’s son and sneaking sweets from his favorite teacher, even as he was getting ready to leave for college, the sour, sudden drop in his stomach when Stiles announces that Danny Mahealani asked him out on a date is as unexpected as it is alarming.

“Danny Mahealani?” Derek is proud of the fact that his voice comes out steady, given that his stomach is feeling like he swallowed something that was trying to fight its way back out again. Stiles had often commented on the ‘unappreciated Field’s Medal nominee’ that is Lydia Martin, has commented more than once on how much of a bombshell Erica is, but Derek _never_ even heard him make _any_ mention of the boys in their classes in the same way...

“Yes, Danny Mahealani!” Stiles’ face was flushed, his grin almost splitting his jaw, and his body was a bounding mass of energy that Derek normally would be teasing the younger man about, but could only sit there in stunned silence as Stiles continued. “I was getting dressed in the locker room after practice and Danny just walked up and asked if I had any plans for this Friday! When I said no, he asked if I was interested in going out to dinner with him!”

Derek blinks, simply watching as Stiles begins to lay out his plan for ‘making sure that this date goes so well that Danny will have no choice but to _demand_ more of the Stilinski charm!’ and unsure as to what to do with the whirlwind of emotions that have taken a hold of him. It gets so bad that Stiles even manages to pull himself out of his Danny induced bubble to ask Derek if he’s feeling okay.

“I… don’t know?” There’s nothing physically wrong with him and until Stiles had made his little announcement, he had been feeling as happy as he usually was whenever the two of them hung out, but now it’s like his head is wrapped in wool and everything is coming at him in slow motion. “I think I need to go home.”

“Uh…” Stiles stops all motion as he glances around himself before giving Derek a look that has him blushing at the scrutiny, “We’re in _your_ room, dude.”

“Oh. Right.” Derek blushes more, caught out and unsure of what he should do, unsure to what he should _feel_ , and manages to stammer out “K-kitchen. I need to go to the kitchen… for some water.”

“Oooookaaaaaayyyyy….” Stiles drags out, but Derek barely hears him over the pounding in his skull as he makes his way down to the kitchen, tripping once or twice on the way.

Because Stiles likes girls, right? He goes on and on about it, never-not once!-even _hinting_ he maybe-kinda-possibly might even like dudes too. This new information is making it hard to think, given that Derek thought that he knew everything that there was to know about his best friend…

Making his way to the kitchen, thankfully not running into any member of his family along the way, Derek makes his way to the fridge and immediately opens up the freezer to stick his head inside, trying to cool off his flushed face and _think_ past the cacophony of thoughts bounding around in his head.

It wasn’t that he had a _problem_ with Stiles liking guys, couldn’t really blame him for being pulled in by Danny either, given how nice the guy was and even _Derek_ could objectively say that he was handsome; it was more that there was a part of Derek that was bristling at the fact that someone else was taking Stiles out for dates, that someone else was making Stiles smile like he had in Derek’s room, when it was _Derek_ who-

Derek jerks his head out of the freezer, his gaze fixed unseeingly on a packet of green beans that his mother has been grouching about needing to be cooked for a while now, as all the little things that seemed off or weird about the past few years came into a sudden, heart-wrenching clarity:

Derek was in love with his best friend.

Derek was _in love_ with Stiles.

Oh, Erica would be _laughing her ass_ **_off_** about this…

She would be the only one; Derek felt like his chest was being pried open and something was scrabbling to get at his heart, only managing to get close enough to scrape at the sides in a way that left him thumping his head back into the freezer again as the sheer scope of everything came crashing down on him…

It was all well and good that Derek finally realized what that warm feeling was that cropped up whenever he thought about Stiles, was happy that what he thought was his more primal side gaining more control was just his jealousy making itself know, it wasn’t like he could just head back up to his room and announce to Stiles how he felt.

For one thing, Stiles had _just said_ that Danny had asked him out on a date. Derek was well aware that this was real life and not some sort of movie or book, and he couldn’t just blurt out how he felt right after Stiles told him something like that and expect a happy ending…

Which lead to his second, and most important, point; just because Derek had realized _he_ was in love with his best friend, did not mean that _Stiles_ would feel the same way.

Derek tries to swallow down the lump in his throat at the thought of Stiles finding out and wanting to stay as friends; he wouldn’t be mean about it, as a long-standing member of the ‘unrequited lovers club’, Stiles would be anything _but_ mean about Derek’s feelings.

Yet, that didn’t mean that things wouldn’t change either…

Pressing his forehead even deeper into the ice of the freezer, a stray thought of how his mother would yell at him for wasting electricity like this fluttering through his mind, Derek tries not to whine at the thought of Stiles being uncomfortable around him:

Of not indulging in the easy way that they lean into each other, the way that Stiles always greets him so enthusiastically with either a hug or a slap on the back, for all of that to go away because Stiles was worried about ‘leading him on’…

Derek finally pulls himself away from the freezer, rubbing at his forehead at where a red mark was no doubt making itself known, before making his way to the sink and filling up two glasses of water.

“Hey, Derek! You didn’t fall while getting your water, did you? Where are you, man?!?”

Huffing out a laugh, Derek makes his way back up to his room and takes a moment to look at Stiles without him noticing;

His best friend is sitting cross-legged in front of the bed, back relaxed against it and hands fiddling with the controller as he sets up their next game, tongue caught between his teeth as he reaches up and swipes an unruly lock of hair out of his face…

There really isn’t anything that stands out to Derek, a certain attribute that he can point out as the catalyst of his growing feelings, or a specific point in time that he can say ‘there, that’s when everything changed’, but Derek _can_ say that he would rather have Stiles in his life than have one without him.

Setting the glass at Stiles’ elbow, Derek plops himself down in front of his bed and picks up a controller.

“So, what are your plans to woo Danny on this date? Lord knows you’re going to need some help with whatever your brain came up with…”

Stiles, predictably, starts squawking about how great his plans are and that he’ll bring them to Scott if Derek is going to be that much of a pessimist about everything, and that he isn’t sure why he even bothered telling Derek in the first place…

Smiling at the flailing limbs and run on sentences of the boy he loves, Derek settles in to make sure this date is a success.

 

* * *

 

It seems like it takes forever for Friday to roll around, and forever to get there, as well…

On the one hand, it’s like nothing at all has changed; Stiles still low-key distracts him all through Chemistry, they go to each other’s houses every other day to play video games and tease each other through their homework, and the only thing that even reminds Derek that Stiles is going to be going out is the giant red circle on Stiles’ calendar at the end of the week.

That, and the fact that it had the words ‘DATE W/ DANNY!!!’ with several underscores written inside it…

On the other hand, Derek is _hyper_ aware of Danny every time that he even _leaves the house_ , seeing the boy in the school halls and in the grocery store, where before Derek couldn’t even tell you which locker was his or if Danny liked crunchy peanut butter more than creamy.

There are moments when Derek wonders if he should warn Danny of what will happen to him if he hurts Stiles, but he quickly reasons that feeling away by pointing out that might scare Danny off before he even has a chance to _know_ Stiles-which is a distinct possibility, given how much his sisters (and Stiles) say his resting face looks like he wants to murder someone-or Danny might think that Derek is trying to _intentionally_ scare him off, so that _Derek_ can date Stiles.

(Just because it was true that Derek wanted to be the one that Stiles was dating, didn’t mean that he was going to screw this up for him.)

In the end, Derek doesn’t do anything, and before he knows it, it’s Friday night and he’s in Stiles’ room, trying to help his best friend try to figure out what color shirt he should wear.

“-I mean, you always said that I looked good in red, but doesn’t it just make me look really pale?” Stiles puts the shirt that he had picked out, made of a soft material and completely lacking in any of the usual graphics that adorned his tees, up against his front and turns so that he’s facing where Derek is sitting on the bed, “I mean, I don’t want Danny to pick me up and think I’m about to be sick before we even go on this date!”

Derek is trying to concentrate on the fact that Stiles seems to be panicking and not on the knowledge that in a few hours’ time he’ll be sitting down with Danny in a secluded area, ready to be wined and dined, so it takes him a second before he answers.

“If you don’t like the way that red one looks on you, then go for the blue. Blue is a nice color for a first date, right?”

“Blue is supposed to be calming, but do I want him to think I _need_ calming? People already think I’m a spaz, I don’t need Danny to think that before we go out on a date!”

“If Danny goes along with what everybody else thinks than he’s an idiot. Go with the blue if you want, calming or not.”

“I just don’t want to screw this up…” Stiles drops both shirts on his desk chair, flopping onto the bed beside Derek and dropping his head into his hands. “I feel like I’m going to do something stupid, like make a mess of myself or trip over something, and whatever temporary insanity that made Danny ask me out in the first place will disappear and he’ll realize that he could do way better and-”

“Stop that.” Derek’s voice comes out a lot harsher than he intended, making Stiles jump and look at him in surprise, but he hates whenever Stiles gets like this and he _hates_ hearing how lowly Stiles thinks of himself because of what a couple of assholes in his classes say.

“Danny would be lucky to have even a fraction of your attention, and even if you _do_ spill food on yourself, or trip, or whatever catastrophe your brain has cooked up, it just means you’re human and you move on. If he makes fun of you for it, he’s an asshole and you tell me, so I can kick his ass.”

For a second, Stiles seems to be shocked silent and only stares at him, before he manages to pull his usual smile into place and quip, “Careful there, Der-bear, or people might think you’re in love with me or something.”

Derek can’t work around the sudden lump in his throat to respond, but thankfully he doesn’t need to, because Stiles is already up and pulling off his shirt to pull on the red one he was fussing over earlier, a hand swiping through his hair in frustration.

“Now I need to figure out what to do with this rat’s nest…” Shaking his head, Stiles turns to Derek and gives him a smile that makes it _very_ hard to remember that Stiles has a date in a few hours...

“Thanks, Der, for helping me not be a _complete_ idiot about this whole thing!”

With a wink and some finger guns, Stiles heads out to the bathroom to no doubt do something with his hair, and Derek rubs his hands over his face as he tries to get a hold of himself.

This is all fine, it’s perfectly normal that Stiles would be nervous about his date, that he’ll probably be all flushed when Danny shows up and he’ll probably be even _more_ flushed at the end of the date when Danny pulls him close, his eyes probably pulled down to the redness of Stiles’ lips, because he always bites at them whenever he’s nervous…

“Hey, Der, do you think I should… I dunno… bring flowers or something?”

Heaving out a heavy breath, Derek lifts his gaze to the open doorway, and tries to keep his voice steady. “Does Danny like flowers?”

“I don’t know! But that’s a thing that you’re supposed to do, right? Bring someone flowers when you go on a date?”

“Well, if we’re going by ‘supposed to’ rules, isn’t _Danny_ the one that is 'supposed to' give _you_ flowers? Since he’s the one that asked you out on a date?”

There’s a bit of silence on Stiles’ end, then he’s walking back through the door and Derek needs a moment to catch his breath:

Somehow managing to tame his hair into a tousle that looks like someone was running their fingers through it, Stiles looks… _edible_ in a soft red shirt that shows off the lean muscles that he usually hides under all of his layers and a pair of gray jeans that look freaking _painted_ on...

 _Why_ is Derek feeling like this _now_?!? He’s seen Stiles dressed up before-various attempts to impress Lydia and important occasions notwithstanding-so why is he acting like a panting idiot _now_ , of all times?!?

“Derek?”

Mentally telling himself to get a grip, Derek stands and gives Stiles a quick once-over, making sure not to linger at any point before nodding and saying, “You look pretty good, Stiles.”

Surprisingly, a blush blooms on Stiles’ cheeks at Derek’s words and he gives him a quick punch to his shoulder. “Not what I asked, but thanks for saying so, anyway.”

Derek bites down on his first response, which is that he _does_ mean it and _isn’t_ just saying so, and instead asks, “Sorry, I guess I missed what you asked…?”

“Yeah, I figured, since you were kinda zoned out when I came in here…” Stiles’ expression turns concerned and a little suspicious, but Derek carefully keeps his face blank long enough for him to shake his head and get back to his original point. “I asked if, since we’re just going to pass on that whole ‘should I bring flowers or not’ thing, I should pay for my meal? Or movie ticket? Or just whatever it is that we do?”

“Stiles,” Derek reaches forward to place his hands on Stiles’ shoulders, cutting off his next question and hopefully stopping the panic that he can tell is creeping back into his friend’s words, “I know that this is all new for you, but you _need_ to _relax_. Danny asked you out, so he probably intends on paying for you. Bring along some money just in case, but _don’t_ make a big deal out of it. But most of all, just remember to freaking _breathe_!”

Stiles sucks in an exaggerated breath at Derek’s words, which makes him chuckle and rub a hand through Stiles’ hair, making him swat at Derek’s hands and run back into the bathroom swearing that Derek ‘completely messed up what he was going for!’

This was good, this was fine…

Derek could live with just this.


	6. Chapter 6

It’s not too long after that when Danny calls to say he’s about five minutes out, and Stiles spends the next few minutes so tightly wound that Derek can barely calm him down enough to sit still.

Thankfully, more for Stiles’ heart than Derek’s peace of mind, Danny calls to say that he’s driving up Stiles’ road and Stiles practically bolts out of the house with barely enough time to say goodbye.

Derek looks at the door from his seat on the couch, wondering if this was going to be the norm for whenever Stiles had a date, and is a little surprised when the door swings open again just a moment later.

“Did you forge-” His question is cut off when he realizes that it’s not Stiles coming through the door, but Mr. and Mrs. Stilinski, who look just as surprised to see him as he is to see them.

“Derek! How nice to see you, sweetie!” Claudia gets over her surprise the fastest and wastes no time in walking over to him to give him a hug, even though her hands seem to be full at the time.

“Derek.” John gives Derek a nod as he makes his way to the kitchen with his own bags, which prompts Derek to offer to help Claudia with hers.

“Thank you, dear, that’s so sweet. Is Stiles here? It seems a little rude to have a guest help out and not have him do anything!”

“Derek’s hardly a guest, Claudia. He might as well be another son you share with Talia, given how much he’s over here…” John gives Derek a wink to let him know that he was teasing before giving a quick look in to the living room. “Where is Stiles, by the way? Usually where one of you is, the other isn’t too far behind…”

“Um…” Derek isn’t sure what to do here; did Stiles not tell them about his date with Danny? It doesn’t seem likely, as he had spent most of the past week telling anyone who would listen about his ‘upcoming exit from singlehood’… Maybe they just forgot that it was for today…?

“He just left for his date with Danny.”

All movement in the kitchen stops, with both Claudia and John staring at Derek in surprise.

“Stiles’ date… with Danny? Danny Mahealani?” Claudia sounds utterly confused as she shares a look with her husband before muttering, “I _did_ see Danny’s car, I just didn’t think…”

“He’s been telling everybody who would listen about this date,” Derek laughs, ignoring the pinch in his chest and the way that the Stilinskis share another look at his words, “I’m surprised that you didn’t stop Danny to read him the riot act!”

“That’s because we thought the date that Stiles couldn’t stop talking about was with _y_ -”

There’s a thud and what sounds like a bitten off curse that has Derek turning from where he was putting groceries away to give the Stilinskis his own apprehensive look, but John is too busy frowning at his wife, who is grinning back at him, and rubbing at his side to notice Derek’s suspicion.

“Regardless, Derek, why don’t you stay for dinner?” Claudia gives Derek a smile and a wink, John rolling his eyes behind her as he starts pulling pots and pans from the cupboards. “We love having you over and Stiles would probably end up calling you as soon as his date is done, so this just saves time, anyway!”

Derek laughs a little at Claudia’s enthusiasm, and it’s not like she’s _wrong_ either, so he stays and helps get everything ready for the meal.

It’s a nice couple of hours, with John and Claudia teasing him about how sweet it is to have someone willing to help with the household chores and loudly wondering if his cooking will be as… _interesting_ as Stiles’.

Derek teases back with commentary about John’s love of fast food despite (or perhaps in spite) of his family’s regulation of his cholesterol and the single attempt that Claudia made of baking a meatloaf that ended with the fire station being called.

The banter eases the pinch in his chest and he feels almost relaxed as he finishes chopping up the peppers for their sauce, just moving them over to the frying pan when the front door slams and Stiles walks into the kitchen only moments later.

Derek’s immediate reaction is to drop the cutting board on the counter and move over to Stiles to wrap him up in a hug, but Stiles steps back before Derek can touch him and even lifts a hand to stall any other action Derek might have taken.

“Stiles…?” 

The boy in question shakes his head, before wrapping his arms around himself and heaving a deep sigh. “I… don’t think that there will be a second date with Danny.”

The dim sounds of Stiles’ parents leaving in the background, with John practically having to be pulled from the room, barely registers as Derek’s gaze trips over Stiles’ form to try and figure out what could’ve happened to make him look so dejected.

“You’ve only been gone-” A quick glance at the clock on the microwave has Derek blinking before he turns back to Stiles, “-an hour and a half? Did something happen? What did Danny do? If he was an asshole to you, I’m gonna-”

“See!” Stiles’ voice seems to burst from him and it cuts off whatever Derek was planning on doing, something that Stiles barely registers as he keeps on speaking, “ _That_ right there is why- You are so- _Danny_ didn’t do anything, the reason that I’m probably not going to get a call back is because I spent the entire time I was out with him talking about you.”

“…me?”

“ _Yes_ , you!” Stiles hands are griping his hair and he’s pacing the short distance of the entryway to the kitchen, but Derek is too stunned to do anything to try and calm him down, not that he’s sure that it would be welcome at this point anyway…

“It all started when Danny picked me up; he asked if there was anywhere specific that I wanted to go and I’m pretty sure that I spent a good ten minutes blabbering about the new Marvel movie and that you were trying to convince me that Black Panther was worth throwing money at a company that made _Captain America_ a _freaking **Nazi**_ **!** ”

“It’s a diverse movie that has-”

“I should have known that something was up when Danny laughed and said he wasn’t surprised that you and I were still arguing about Marvel after all this time.” Stiles shakes his head and drops his hands, only to rub them over his face a couple of times. “Idiot that I am, I didn’t read the warning sign and just went on about the fact that while the both of you had really nice cars, I much preferred the Camaro, including about fifteen reasons why and detailing a few trips we took.”

“You are _not_ an idiot, and you were just making a basis for comparison-”

“But the real kicker, the cherry on top of this oh-so-perfect evening was when we finally made it to the restaurant that we were going to eat at.” Stiles finally stops right in front of Derek and gives him a bitter smile that has Derek moving forward again, only for Stiles to _again_ take a step back. “It’s that new place on Fourth, the one that has that steak special that you’re always drooling over… so guess what I immediately started talking about?”

Derek swallows past the lump in his throat, trying to think of something that he can say to wipe the devastated look from Stiles’ face, but he can’t get more than, “Stiles…” out before he is once again interrupted.

“I guess Danny had enough by that point, because he stopped right in front of the door and asked if I really wanted to go out with him, or if I was just settling for him because I couldn’t land you.” Stiles gives a little huff at this and lowers his gaze to the floor, but Derek can still hear the whispered, “The horrible thing? I couldn’t tell him that he was wrong…”

Derek is pretty sure that he’s fallen into a parallel universe at this point and can only muster a hoarse, “What?”

Unfortunately, his question causes Stiles to flinch like he’s been hit and then he’s off like a shot, “I mean, I didn’t mean to make Danny feel like he was just a placeholder, I really _did_ want to go out with him and see if I could somehow get over you, but I managed to fuck that up all the way to hell and it’s no wonder that you don’t feel that way about me because I just screw everything up and I’ll just go to my room and you can stay here, or leave if what I said is making you uncomfortable, and I don’t want you to think that you have to return my feelings, we can just stay friends if that-”

“No.” Derek is a bit thrown by all the words that Stiles just tossed his way, but he _is_ sure of one thing: Stiles is telling him that _he feels the same_ as Derek and he’s **_trying to leave_**. “Stiles, I don’t want-”

“Shit, yeah, of course you don’t-” Stiles cuts himself off and shakes his head, a wave of disappointment hitting Derek so hard that he almost _chokes_ on it, “I’ll just… I mean, we’re graduating soon anyway, so you don’t- I mean, _I_ won’t-”

“ ** _Stiles_**!” Derek would be laughing at any other time, considering that his only contributions to this conversation have been broken off sentences and different intonations of his best friend’s name, but right now he feels nowhere near laughing as he finally grabs hold of Stiles’ shoulders and firmly states, “You don’t have to leave and I don’t want you to stop being my friend either.”

“Oh, _thank **God**_! I- I mean, that’s… that’s good.”

“As a matter of fact,” Derek slips a hand up to Stiles’ cheek, his heart thrumming a frantic beat at the way that Stiles’ eyes widen, praying that this sudden bout of courage ends well, “I think that I want us to be a lot more than just friends…”

Stiles’ eyes get impossibly bigger at that and his hand comes up to grip Derek’s wrist n an almost vice-like grasp as he stammers, “You… really? I mean, _you_ … and _me_?”

“ _Yes_ , really.”

“And this isn’t because I made you feel sorry for me because of my whole word dump thing, right?”

“No, Stiles, it’s not because I feel guilty.”

“Because you don’t have to do this because you think you _should_ , you know?” Stiles gives Derek a very ‘this is my serious face’ look, which just makes a warm feeling bubble up in Derek’s chest and a smile sneak out across his lips, something that has Stiles frowning at him. “I’m _serious_ here, Derek! Just because I basically told you that I… _really_ like you, it doesn’t mean that _you_ -”

“Would you believe me if I kissed you?”

Derek is pretty sure that Stiles’ eyes are in danger of falling out of his head at that statement. “I- you- we- yes?”

Derek dips his head down, dragging his nose against Stiles’ in a way that has him letting out this little gasp that sends a shiver down Derek’s spine. “That doesn’t sound very sure…”

“I just…” Stiles’ eyes dart all over Derek’s face and this close he can see little flecks of gold around the iris. “ ** _Derek_** …”

That’s the last thing Stiles says before he darts forward and brushes his lips against Derek’s, pulling away far too soon for Derek’s liking and making him drag his tongue over his bottom lip in an attempt to see if he can catch more of Stiles’ taste.

Stiles makes a noise at that and then he’s back, pressing closer and even catching Derek bottom lip between his teeth, making a growl grow from Derek’s chest or rumble from Stiles’, building between the two until Derek can’t tell who deepens the kiss next…

Breaking apart for a second, just enough to take a quick breath, Derek dips back in to scrape his teeth along Stiles’ neck, unable to resist how taunt it is and emboldened by the whine Stiles makes.

“Derek… _Derek_ …”

Hands tug at his hair and Derek reluctantly releases Stiles’ neck to once again seal his mouth over the younger boy’s, hands slipping under Stiles’ shirt and kneading the muscles under his hands.

That earns him another groan and Derek is just about to lower his hands to Stiles’ legs and see if he can get him to wrap them around him, when a sudden crashing sound behind him makes them jerk apart.

John is standing in the kitchen doorway, the same kind of redness that dusts Stiles’ face covering his own as he attempts to glare at the two of them.

“Well, while I’m glad that the pair of you have finally realized that the other is completely crazy about you, I would prefer it if you didn’t do… _that_ in the middle of the kitchen.”

“Does that mean that you won’t mind if we go-”

“Finish that sentence and I’ll make Derek go home, and tell Talia not to let him see you until you’re both forty!”

“Shutting up now.”

“Oh, John.” Claudia giggles as she enters the kitchen as well, playfully pushing at her husband’s shoulder. “Don’t be so hard on them! You remember how _we_ were when we first got together?”

Muttering about how that was completely different, John stomps over the stove and grumbles about needing a steak for dealing with all this, which just has Claudia giggling again.

Tugging at Derek’s hand, Stiles pulls him out of his parent’s eyesight to press a quick kiss against his lips.

“Still not regretting this, right?”

Listening to John and Claudia tease each other in the kitchen and seeing the doubt in Stiles’ eyes, Derek pulls him close and kisses him until his body is almost completely leaning against Derek’s.

“Not at all.”


End file.
